As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
In order to service an information handling system, a system administrator may in some instances need to be physically present at the information handling system to perform management operations on an information handling system. For example, some of such operations may include, without limitation, powering off an information handling system via a power button, booting to basic input/output system option read-only memories, booting to a boot manager, booting to pre-operating system environments (e.g., Windows PE), provisioning an information handling system from a local user interface (e.g., a liquid crystal display screen) for remote management purposes (e.g., setting an Internet Protocol address, subnet mask, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol settings, etc.), booting from an operating system stored on an external storage medium (e.g., a Universal Serial Bus key), configuring an access controller/baseboard management controller (e.g., setting passwords), and automatically configuring information handling system settings with information stored on an external storage medium (e.g., a Universal Serial Bus key).
The need for such management operations may expose a security risk for an information handling system. For example, in traditional systems, an unauthorized user (e.g., one with malicious intent) may in some instances perform some of these management operations without any restrictions to tamper or misuse the information handling system. Controlling physical access of individuals to rooms or buildings in which an information handling system is located may partially mitigate such risks, but may be far from completely effective.